Within a period of one year, more than 1.5 million new Arab users will hook onto the World Wide Web, raising the number of Internet users in the Arab world from the current figure of 3.54 million, to an estimated five million, according to a survey conducted in mid-March by the Ajeeb Research Unit.

The Ajeeb survey indicates that the five million users potentially online by 2002, constitute about two percent of the total Arab world population. Further down the line, Ajeeb forecasts that by the end of 2002, the Arab user base will have nearly doubled, reaching 10 to 12 million.

The survey also showed that Internet penetration rate was the highest and fastest in the United Arab Emirates, where the number of subscribers grew from 140,000 to 220,000 during the past year. This makes a 57 percent annual growth rate. — (Albawaba-MEBG)